Improvement in apparatus for drying painted wire-cloth



C. H. WATERS.

Apparatus for Drying Painted Wire 850th.

Patented Aprii 22, 1873.

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UNITED STATES PATENT DFFIoE.

GHABLESH. WATERS, OF GROTONfMASSAGHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN APPARATUS FOR DRYING PAINTED WIRE-CILOTH.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 138,060, dated April 22, 1873 application filed February 28, 1873.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES H. WATERS, of Groton, in thecounty of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improved Process or Method of Drying or Oxidizing the Surface of Painted \Vire-Oloth or other reticulated fabrics, of which the following is a specification:

Heretofore painted wire-cloth has been dried by hanging it up vertically in large high towers, constructed mostly for that express purpose, where it is exposed to the ordinary currents of air for a time varying from twenty-four to forty-eight hours.

The space occupied by these drying-towers, and the expense of their construction, have made it very desirable that some other method of drying the wire-cloth should be found.

My invention consists in winding painted wirecloth into a cylinder and passing artificial currents of air into or out of such wirecloth cylinder through the meshes thereof, to dry or oxidize all parts of the painted surface of the wirecloth.

For carrying out my improved method or process I have found it convenient to use such an apparatus as is represented in the accompanyin g drawing, in which- Figure l is a side elevation of the apparatus without any wire-cloth upon it; Fig. 2, a longitudinal section through the axis of the cylinder; Fig. 3, a side elevation of the apparatus loaded with painted wire-cloth; and Fig. if, a crosssection taken at the line A B of ig. 3. v

a is a bed-plate from which, or from the floor itself, arise standards b b, in which are formed bearings to support the journals of the shaft 0 of the cylinder d. This shaft is hollow and closed at one end, and has its walls perforated to permit the passage of the current of air into the shaft or out from'it, according as the current is produced by suction or by blast, using the common means for producing such current. 0 e are two solid cylinder-heads connected by cross-pieces constituting a skeleton cylinder, on which the painted cloth is wound by turning the cylinder by the drum g.

It may be found desirable, in order to pro vide uniform support of all parts of the innermost roll of wire-cloth, to wrap around the cylinder, in the first place, a sheet of wire-cloth to serve as a base on which the painted wirecloth may be rolled up.

The diameter of cylinder which I prefer is about thirty inches, and I have found that a length of painted wire-cloth sufficient to go two hundred and fifty times around such a cylinder can be satisfactorily dried thereon.

All the necessary apparatus for drying by my process an ordinary days production, by machinery, of wire-cloth can be finished and the drying accomplished at a cost of not over one-twentieth of the cost under any process heretofore known.

My method of drying will be readily understood from the foregoing. An artificial current of air is caused by a proper fan to pass through the cylindrical layers "of the painted wire-cloth and through its meshes, either outwardly by blast or inwardly by suction, as

may be found most convenient; and thus the wire-cloth is dried as thoroughly as, and more quickly than, if it were hungvertically in a drying-tower or room, and with great economy of space.

Instead of having the current of air pass through perforations in the shaft, it is obvious that it may pass into or out from the cylinder through any suitable opening in the cylinderhead; but I consider the arrangement I have described the best, as insuring the most equal distribution of the dryingcurrent over the whole surface to be dried.

I claim- The method of drying painted wire-cloth or other reticulated fabric by windin'gitinto a cylinder and passing an artificial current of air through the meshes thereof, as described.

CHARLES H. WATERS.

Witnesses:

O. F. W. PARKHURST, H. J. BROWN. 

